You have to be careful with plants in shallow water like that. As I'm sure you're aware, water plants grow really fast, and the problem with such shallow water is that the roots are going to grow outside the edge of your stream/fall and wick water out of the pond. It's a natural process for the roots to seek out the soil surrounding your pond, which can cause real problems. One year I had to go on a massive hunt for why my pond was losing water too fast. After moving many rocks, I finally found the water celery roots that had escaped the stream! I never planted the stream again.

Hi, I know that the hosta do very well with pea gravel, however, I am not so certain about the hydrangea. My hydrangea show limp leaves in the extreme heat and I fear that the roots would get too warm with the gravel over top of them. I would suggest asking this in the hydrangea forum. Those folks have a lot more knowledge and will probably ask what variety of hydrangea you have.

Talynnp, I think your money would be spent wiser by having a Voodoo Princess shake a chicken beak at your Hostas! But seriously, I have people ask me about the Hosta getting root bound. Gee what a problem to have ,maybe it would be better to just have the voles eat the Hosta as babies to avoid them having to be root bound! But seriously. (I mean it this time!)It is easy to dig a larger hole once the Hosta gets too big...Sometimes I will move the original Hosta to a bigger pot and start a baby in the gallon. I put gravel in the bottom of the pot first then mix about half of the original soil with compost and pearlite and add a touch of cow poop for pizazz! If it is in a heavily populated vole area IE. the edge of the woods or where a lot of leaves accumulate in the winter, I will sprinkle some fine grit over the top of the crown. I have had a lot of folks try this and have saved a many Hostas and a truck load of tears. I am THE VOLESTER! BE THE VOLE! BEEEE THE VOLE! DennrayyRick.

Thanks everyone for the helpful input! I was leaning to not using the fabric, now I feel more confident in my decision. Yes, I think for the gravel pathway surface between the pavers and the planter boxes, where it will see more foot traffic, I'm looking for a very hard, compacted surface made up smooth pea gravel mixed with some fines and compacted into either drain gravel or base rock. Our local nursery has this surface, and it looks like pea gravel, maybe mixed with blue fines, compacted into road base. Towards the dry garden, I agree with either bigger gravel but I definitely thought it'd be looser. I have been thinking about what gravel material layers to use for back garden and now the front pathway for about a year! Pro landscapers tell me Decomposed Granite is what I want, but it will carry into house and scuff up floors, and does not drain well, etc. So thats why I'm thinking blue pea gravel as its aligned to our aesthetic wont track in as easily and scuff. I also want a hard surface that drains well and does not pool water, hence me wanting to use drain rock under pea gravel. it feels like DG would stick to your shoes when wet and track and pea gravel wont as its not sandy like that DG. I think Ill do a square foot test - gravel into base rock, or gravel and fines into drain gravel. As for the raw clay soil prep for plants, yes I totally agree with needing a wider hole and or mound, especially in hard clay. The way I usually plant in ground into our hard clay, is dig a hole 3 times bigger than potted plant, then fill the whole 1/3 with 50/50 mix of clay soil and cactus/succulent mix form Hardware Store ( amended mix) . then fill the rest with 100% cactus/succulent mix, mulch on top and superficial pea gravel for cover. Some quick screengrab examples and my updated layers plan